Island joins nationwide tribute to Halberstam

Friday

Oct 12, 2007 at 2:00 AM

By Joshua Balling I&M Managing Editor

To his friends on Nantucket, the late David Halberstam was just a regular guy.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author found sanctuary on the island, taking long walks, fishing whenever he could, playing softball in his younger days, stopping to chat with whoever wanted to talk, and contemplating the subject of his next book.

Halberstam, who died April 23 in a car accident near San Francisco on his way to interview former 49ers quarterback Y.A. Tittle for a book he was writing about the 1958 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and Baltimore Colts, will be remembered Saturday night in the Great Hall of the Nantucket Atheneum.

Island author and historian Nat Philbrick will read from Halberstam’s last book, “The Coldest Winter,” about the Korean War, released Sept. 25; a number of other islanders will share their memories; and a Korean War Veterans of Cape Cod color guard will be on hand. The tribute will conclude with a seven-minute video retrospective of Halberstam interviews on Plum TV.

The event is part of a nationwide series of readings in memory of Halberstam that coincide with what would have been his book tour for “The Coldest Winter.”

“He was extremely intelligent, very gracious, and very kind to everybody in every spectrum of society. All his life, his name and phone number were listed in the Manhattan directory,” said islander David White, who met Halberstam when he was working at the old Opera House restaurant and became a lifelong friend. “He was not pretentious at all. He was always there with a note or a call-back. He was always writing somebody a recommendation for a job or a forward to their book. He could talk to anybody.”

But it was his writing that defined the man for those who didn’t know him. A prolific author and meticulous researcher who cut his teeth as a reporter for The New York Times in Vietnam before turning to longer-form writing, it seemed that Halberstam could write about anything, and each book quickly became the definitive work on that subject.

“He was an amazingly disciplined man. His research was the best ever,” said friend and fishing partner Tom Mleczko. “He wouldn’t stop researching something until he knew it inside and out. But the most amazing thing, I think, was that no matter who he was with, he made them feel like they were the best at whatever they were doing. It didn’t matter if he was talking to someone about fishing, hockey or writing. It was incredible. He made you feel really good about yourself.”

Perhaps best known for “The Best and the Brightest,” about how America became involved in the Vietnam War, Halberstam was equally comfortable writing about any topic. Islander Tom Congdon edited “The Reckoning,” about the rise of the Japanese auto industry at a time when U.S. car-makers were floundering.

“He was a master storyteller and a man of great courage,” remembered Congdon. “His reporting on Vietnam angered a lot of powerful people. It was a privilege and a pleasure to work with someone of David’s caliber.”

His books ran the gamut, from politics – “War in a Time of Peace,” about how U.S. foreign policy has been influenced by the legacy of Vietnam – to Civil Rights – “The Children” is an examination of the roots of the Civil Rights movement in Nashville, Tenn. – to “Firehouse,” a powerful and intimate portrait of a single Manhattan fire company in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But Halberstam also loved writing about sports. His bibliography includes “The Education of a Coach,” about fellow summer resident Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots; “Summer of ’49,” about the 1949 pennant race between the Red Sox and Yankees; and “Playing for Keeps,” about Chicago Bull Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame basketball career.

Philbrick remembers being most influenced by “The Amateurs,” Halberstam’s look at Olympic rowing.

“He was really for me from the beginning a true role model. No one out there had a career that can compare to what he achieved. I was trained as a sailing journalist, so the book that really appealed to me from the beginning was ‘The Amateurs.’ I thought it was brilliant,” Philbrick said. “I loved seeing him around the island. I bumped into him at the Nantucket Bake Shop the summer before ‘Mayflower’ (Philbrick’s book about the Pilgrims) came out. He told me how great it was to see it on the best-seller list. That’s the kind of guy he was. He was quietly and unpretentiously here. Given where he’s been and what he’s achieved, he was a real inspiration for me.”

Mimi Beman, the owner of Mitchell’s Book Corner and a close friend of Halberstam, his wife Jean and their daughter Julia, who worked in the bookstore a few summers, agreed.

“He was a towering presence in every way, metaphorically and literally,” Beman said. “There were so many things he was interested in. He did so many things so well. He loved to tell me about his discoveries. He had connections and he listened. He was an intelligent and discerning reader. He read for work, for personal edification, but also for pleasure. I loved him so much for the joy he got out of reading for pleasure. He loved to read.”

Philbrick is looking forward to reading from “The Coldest Winter.”

“It’s staggering the work that went into it, the breadth of it,” he said. “It’s ordinary soldiers talking. Often we come to learn about wars through the strategies of generals, and the soldiers are nameless forces. Here it’s from the inside-out. My father served in Germany during the Korean War, and was very happy it worked out that way, but it was a war I heard a lot about. In many ways it’s a completely forgotten conflict, but in a very personal way it connects parts of America’s history. Vietnam was a direct response to Korea. It’s a great book.”

The tribute to David Halberstam is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday in the Great Hall of the Nantucket Atheneum, 1 India St. The event is free, but tickets are required. If any remain, they may be picked up at the library.

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